The self-confessed French rapist who allowed scores of men to rape his wife after drugging her should spend a maximum 20 years in prison, a prosecutor said today.
Attorney general Laure Chabaud on Monday called for Domique Pelicot, 71, to potentially spend the rest of his life in a cell.
He has admitted the ‘aggravated rape’ of ex-wife Gisele Pelicot, 72, along with some of the 50 other men standing trial with him.
Speaking at the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon, Ms Chabaud said two decades was all that was legally allowed.
‘What sentence should be imposed?’ she asked. ‘The maximum sentence is 20 years of criminal imprisonment, which is both a lot and too little in view of the seriousness of the repeated attacks.’
Dominique Pelicot (Top R) during his trial in which he is accused of drugging his wife Gisele Pelicot (Bottom C) on November 25
Ms Chabaud said Ms Pelicot, a mother of three, had been reduced to an ‘object’ by men who just ‘used her for easy sex’ over almost a decade.
Her ex-husband contacted them all online, and then invited them back to the family home in Mazan, near Avignon, where they raped his drugged wife.
‘Gisèle Pelicot’s state, close to a coma, should have raised the alarm,’ said Ms Chabaud.
‘Rape is characterised by a lack of consent,’ she added, saying there was no possibility that the victim had voluntarily taken drugs to put her to sleep, as part of a ‘libertine game’, as the defence has suggested.
‘What pleasure can she sincerely get from it, without counting the side effects the next day,’ said Ms Chabaud.
Jean-François Mayet, the second attorney general at the case, said everything about the case was ‘out of the ordinary’.
Mr Mayet said: ‘These are the first words that came to mind when we were entrusted with the task of bringing the charges in this case.
‘This trial gave rise to 59 volumes of judicial information, containing thousands of reports.
‘Our justice system is regularly criticised for being too slow – let us thank it for having managed to conclude this extraordinary procedure in 31 months.
‘The result of their work resulted in Dominique Pelicot being placed in police custody on November 2, 2020’ and he has been in prison on remand ever since.
Mr Mayet said ‘20,000 photos and videos’ were found on Mr Pelicot’s devices, all of them showing the subdued Ms Pelicot, often being subjected to horrific acts.
Turning to Ms Pelicot, who was in court wearing a purple blouse, the prosecutor said: ‘I salute your courage and the dignity with which you expressed yourself during these long weeks of the hearing.’
Last week, both the Pelicots gave final statements in court.
After his own son had called him ‘the devil incarnate,’ Mr Pélicot made a personal plea to his family, saying: ‘I thought they would be devastated, but not to this extent.
‘I measured the damage caused by my annihilation, and I bitterly regret it, but I want to emphasise that I have never touched my children or my grandchildren.’
In turn, Ms Pélicot denounced the ‘cowards’ who raped her and blasted ‘a macho, patriarchal society where rape is trivialised.’
Ms Pélicot was supported in court by her youngest son, Florian Pélicot, 38, who on Monday told his father: ‘I am very grateful to have our mother alive, but I have a lot of incomprehension about what our father did.’
Mr Pélicot added: ‘You always said that our mother was a saint. But you, you were the devil incarnate.’
All of the couple’s three adult children have testified against Dominique Pélicot, who is appearing in court in a glass-fronted dock.
The retired electrician and estate agent crushed sleeping pills into his wife’s food and drink, then invited the strangers to rape her between 2011 and 2020.
He kept hundreds of videos of rape on his computer in a file entitled ‘Abuse’, and has admitted the charge against him, telling the court: ‘I am a rapist.’
Some of his co-accused admit rape, while others say they did not know Gisèle Pelicot was drugged, despite videos showing her snoring loudly.
Ms Pélicot, a former logistics manager, has become feminist icon after saying the trial has raised awareness of the use of drugs to rape women.
Ms Pélicot said she had suffered ‘acts of barbarity’ and would not ‘feel at peace until the end of my life.’
She added: ‘I’ll learn to live with it. I’ll rebuild myself. But there’ll forever be 51 people who have defiled me.’
Fourteen other men beyond her husband have confessed to raping her, while the others deny the charges, arguing that they thought Ms Pélicot had consented to having sex with them.
The trial continues and is expected to end on December 20th.
